ECOWAS virtual summit: member states stand together against Covid-19

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Joint health response, call to central banks to support SMEs but also the informal sector ... The 15 heads of state and government gathered for this first virtual summit of the ECOWAS have chosen to put under the carpet tensions and tensions to join forces against the coronavirus. 

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With our correspondent in Abuja, Moïse Gomis

In December 2019, the last summit of ECOWAS heads of state in Abuja ended with facade smiles. Behind the scenes, many resentments were nevertheless alive: the unilateral refocusing of Nigeria on its borders to the great displeasure of its neighbors, the cold anger of countries outside the FCFA zone around the single West African currency faced with the project defended by Côte d'Ivoire but also  the electoral soap opera in Guinea-Bissau.

Finally, the urgency posed by the Covid-19 tightened ties and ranks within the ECOWAS. By choosing to favor community responses, the 15 heads of state and government have chosen the language of reason and unity as a bulwark against a health crisis whose economic and social repercussions are already very strong in the area.

Lots of questions remain unanswered, especially those on financial means necessary to curb the recession in the crosshairs for the countries of the ECOWAS, if the world remains confined and especially if the coronavirus continues its spread in Africa.

But a month and a few days before the 45th anniversary of their community, the fifteen found the fundamentals of the Cédéao: one for all and all for one.

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Cédéao: a first summit of heads of state on the coronavirus in videoconference